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The Bay of Plenty Times Year in Review takes a look back at 2018 and republishes some of the top stories of the year. In this one, originally published on October 20, reporter Scott Yeoman delves into the past to retell the story of New Zealand's only mass school shooting.

"Oh memories."

Two final words engraved in white on an old granite headstone in Waihi Cemetery.

It marks the resting place of 13-year-old Kelvin Maurice McLean. "Our" Kelvin. "The Dearly Loved."

Killed in the Waikino School Tragedy, the inscription says. 19th Oct. 1923.

Two of them were there that day and the third – Daniel Earl Bustard – wasn't yet born.

He is now 81 and lives in Waikino.

Sitting at his dining room table this week, he shared an emotional story about how the shooting unfolded and how his dad, uncle and granddad were caught up in it.

There were long pauses, and tears.

Daniel's father was 10 at the time and was in class with his brother, Alexander, when Higgins arrived. Granddad Daniel was working nearby at the Victoria Battery.

A newspaper report reveals how young Daniel later recounted the ordeal in court.

On entering their classroom, the gunman said: "I'll have a shot at you lot."

Daniel was sitting near a window in the second row of desks. His friend Charles Stewart was nearby.

Higgins fired in their direction, and Daniel immediately saw blood coming from a wound on Charles' face.

At this stage, children were fleeing the school in all directions, some climbing through the windows. Others hid under and behind desks and cupboards. Brave teachers shepherded as many as possible outside to safety.

Three policemen from Waihi and two doctors arrived at the school soon after the men from the battery and, with some of the civilians now also armed, a long siege ensued with Higgins. He fired from the window of the study.

A police constable was shot as bullets flew back and forth.

Eventually, Higgins was overcome, and he threw his gun out of the window. The door was broken in, and an infuriated crowd rushed at him.

He was also found to be carrying a knife and plugs of explosive gelignite, complete with a detonator attached to a fuse.

"The civilians said afterwards that if it had not been for the police, they would have lynched or shot the maniac in cold blood," a report in the New Zealand Herald said.

"The senior sergeant said he had never seen a crowd so mad with fury as the Waikino men were on Friday morning."

Meanwhile, remarkably, headmaster Reid was found still alive in the study. He and the other five wounded were rushed to Waihi Hospital.

The two dead children were taken to the miners' hall at Waikino.

Higgins was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to life in prison, on the grounds of insanity. He is said to have spent his final days in a mental institution in Auckland, where he died.

But decades later, the trauma of what he did remains alive.

Still talked about

Four children who were injured during in the shooting, with Alexander Bustard second from the right. Photo / New Zealand Herald

She said it was important to speak sensitively about the tragedy "because there are still people alive who have been connected with that story".

That was a lesson learnt early by the current principal of Waikino School.

Joanna Wheway has been there for a year and a half, after leaving Auckland for the quiet community hidden in the hills.

She said the story of the shooting was unavoidable.

"If you Google Waikino School, it's the first thing that you see, at the top of the Google hit list."

Wheway discovered it for the first time when she was looking at applying for the job. She had never heard of a New Zealand school shooting.

After the initial shock, she quickly realised it was ancient history.

But, having now lived and worked in Waikino, Wheway knows the tragedy is still strongly felt. She said a lot of old families in the area have a connection to it.

"Even how long ago it was, it's quite an upsetting thing still for the community; a lot of them are quite reluctant to talk about it."

Her students are busy working on a multimedia project titled "Stories of the bush" in which they have been gathering information about the history of the area. Locals have visited the school to share their knowledge and experience.

A 98-year-old man came in one day, Wheway said, and told the children about his relative who was involved in the school shooting.

"It's highly engaging for kids finding out about their area and history."

But there is little information and few tributes in public spaces to remind locals or educate newcomers about what happened.

Of course, there are the graves of the two young boys in Waihi Cemetery.

Marking a tragedy

Robyn Ramsey (left) and Harriet Taylor, two members of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, Waihī Branch. Photo / John Borren

Daniel Earl Bustard said the events of that day in 1923 stayed with his father his whole life.

It wasn't something he spoke about a lot.

"The only thing that worried him was his mate getting shot that was sitting in front of him. He got shot through the head, and my dad got covered in blood and …"

The 81-year-old stopped to compose himself. He cleared his throat.

"And that played on his mind. Yeah, it played on his mind something terrible."

Right up until the very end, Daniel said, when his dad died at age 87.

"When he was laying in hospital dying he said to me that it was one thing that he'll be able to forget."

Daniel said it was a traumatic experience that scarred his father.

"Pretty horrific when you stop and think about it. I sort of kick myself that I haven't taken a bigger interest in the history of that particular thing."

His dad once took him up to the site of the old school.

There's not much there now. It's effectively an empty paddock on private land. The school was burnt to the ground in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

A community meeting was being held that night; the people of Waikino were protesting the location of the school, which they had long complained was too isolated.

A resident rushed into the meeting and announced the school was burning. The locals immediately made their way to the fire, "where they found nothing but smouldering embers".

A strong wind was blowing that night.

A report in the Herald said the fire was thought to have been caused by "incendiarism" – a drastic protest against the lonely position of the school and the horrors that occurred there the week before.

Pools of blood had been left in the headmaster's study, the corridor and in one of the classrooms.

Walls were peppered with bullets, desks were overturned and books and school equipment were littered all over the floor.

Another Herald article said: "On the day of the shooting, not a few of the residents of Waikino were heard saying that they would not be sorry if the building were burnt to the ground…"

Police investigated the fire, but there is no record of anyone being arrested or charged.

Just who did the deed was never spoken about, not publicly anyway. Until now.

A secret revealed

The remains of Waikino School after it was burnt down in 1923. Photo / Waihi Arts Centre and Museum Association